First off, thanks for dropping by Zero and everyone else who is following along!

Well it's been a while, and there is a reason for it... my deadline to get the studio done for a combination birthday party and studio opening is June 9th (today is actually my birthday, but I decided to do the celebrating of it on the weekend when more people could come). So this week is the last week I have to get any final touches done before the grand opening party. I have started to hang some framed art and mementos such as Shrunken Head Ned cards from Disneyland. I had to figure out a way to hang heavier stuff because the walls are too thin to go putting a lot of big screws into, so I ended up getting open eye hooks and screwing those into the 2x4 beams. The small stuff I twisted together two Christmas bulb hangers and then snagged then into the burlap, so they are hanging essentially from the burlap cloth.

The last of the wall clamping. I was using liquid nails to "glue" bamboo sticks to the edges as a border to seal and hide the fraying edges of the burlap. I used every clamp I could get my hands on.

After they were all glued down and dried, I started to paint on a wood stain, you can see the difference it makes here. I was trying match the golden brown of the koa wood on the placemats I used as a border lower on the walls.

Then to match, I stained every other wood wall surface such as the base boards here.

I found a couple of very nice older looking frames at Goodwill for cheap, I just had to do some fancy cutting to get rid of some tacky pictures of dogs and ponies and glued in matte boards. Then I took some oversize calendar prints of paintings from my favorite artist Carl Barks, and put them into the frames. I chose two nautical themed paintings he did to go with my tiki theme. This one is called "Makings of a Fish Story" with Uncle Scrooge, Donald and the kids diving for treasure (Carl Barks is the creator of Uncle Scrooge, and wrote and drew over 500 Disney comics. When he retired he began to do paintings of his characters.) I really liked how the green frame set off the painting, and was fortunate to find both this frame and the next one on the same day and they both match the painting color schemes.

This Carl Barks painting is called "Afoul of the Flying Dutchman", based on a full length Uncle Scrooge comic story of the same name.

I had to put up the menu from the first time I went to Trader Vic's, but I didn't want to frame it because I wanted to be able to open it up and see the drinks inside. So I just thumb tacked it to the wall in such a way that it rests on the thumbtacks without putting holes in it.

I know this mask is tacky, and not exactly in the tiki tradition but it is special to me because I got it on my first trip back to Honolulu since we moved away when I was kid. It was the first time as an adult I had been back to my birthplace, and I found this mask at a marketplace in there. It is hanging from one the hooks, and I am using it to conceal some of the cords from the boombox above it, so the wire to any external device such a CD player to be plugged into the boombox comes out of the tiki mask mouth.

If you have ever been to Disneyland and are familiar with Adventureland, you might know about "Shrunken Head Ned" The jungle's only witch doctor. It is a sort of humorous fortune telling machine with a shrunken head giving you your fortune. In addition to an audio fortune, you also get these cards dispensed randomly to you that are quite hilarious. I framed several of them against a few scraps of Hawaiian cloth for the studio. I also as you can see, framed some similar cards from the older "Fortune Red" teller machine at the exit to Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Here are the Shrunken Head Ned ones on the wall.

I found a shadowbox at Goodwill also that I knew I could make good use of. I stuffed it with various trinkets I acquired over the years, mainly Disneyland stuff. There is a rare opening brochure for the Enchanted Tiki Room, and E ticket that lists the tiki room and several now gone attractions, various pins such as one for the little orange bird (Florida tiki room's old mascot), replica doubloons, and last but not least one of the earliest "tiger things" I ever bought: a tiger squirt gun I have had since I was about 7 years old.

I got this old label cheap off ebay, it is for a pineapple flavored soda that was marketed around the late 1930's called Lula. I thought it looked quite nice mounted against the mulberry paper.

Back to the construction... Remember the lauhala matting I got at the tiki event? I decided to cut it into squares to cover what I could of the ugly silver ceiling (later I will have to buy more to finish it off). I was not prepared for how difficult and dangerous this stuff could be to work with. I did remember from looking at some past threads on installation of the stuff to tape the back to hold it together when you cut it, but was not prepared for how sharp those edges were and how much splintering there would be. I am still digging splinters out of my hands and those are nasty little buggers let me tell you. After the first few tries I got smart and got some gloves, but splinters still went through the gloves even though they were rubber coated. Here it is being laid out for cutting.

And where they are on the part of the ceiling I covered.

As a final touch to the bamboo on the walls I am taking rope bits and snugging them up behind the bamboo in such a way that it looks like the bamboo is tied together (this also hides some of the more ill fitting bamboo pieces where they come together). It's like a Hollywood set though; don't pull on those ropes too hard it's just for show.

And it is not tiki so avert your eyes if you are sensitive to the purity of tiki being invaded by things wholly of non-tiki nature.... I had a bunch of flat magnets that were being thrown away (you know those magnetic advertising "cards" that banks and businesses use). I tore off the top paper coating and glued down and laminated my own graphics of old arcade game marquee's and bezels. I thought these would be perfect for post it note size papers that could go behind the bezel frames. Being a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up playing these games and dearly love the artwork from them. They work perfectly on the edge of my huge metal cabinet. Cy from Frog Island Tiki's gave me a sample of the same kind of magnet sheet stuff to cover the ugly electric box, but it got lost somewhere in the layers of construction. Once I find it I am going to make something to cover the electric box, but it probably won't be in time for the opening party.

The next time I post it will be of the grand opening/birthday celebration!

If you have ever been to Disneyland and are familiar with Adventureland, you might know about "Shrunken Head Ned" The jungle's only witch doctor. It is a sort of humorous fortune telling machine with a shrunken head giving you your fortune. In addition to an audio fortune, you also get these cards dispensed randomly to you that are quite hilarious. I framed several of them against a few scraps of Hawaiian cloth for the studio. I also as you can see, framed some similar cards from the older "Fortune Red" teller machine at the exit to Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Here are the Shrunken Head Ned ones on the wall.

I wish Disney would make a talking Shrunken Head Ned toy!
Great looking lounge!
_________________-Lori

Mike: Thanks, I had to work on my birthday that was another reason for bumping the celebration but overall it was a pretty good day. I was actually surprised how well some of the framing turned out. Some of those frames are from the dollar store.

Tikilongbeach: Yeah I know! I would absolutely love to have a miniature electronic talking Shrunken Head Ned...come on Disney! Do you want our money or not???

Wendy (and Dan): A thrill ride like Magic Mountain? Well hopefully without the sickness inducing motion your description cracked me up, thanks for stopping by. Don't worry once the party is over there will be not stopping this tiger!

I will try to take a few more pics of some details I added after those photos were taken, including one of my favorite little additions that is utilitarian as well as decorative. The next big thing is to rent a carpet shampooer and get all that mud and junk out of the main carpet so I can lay down my area rug over it... wait till you see that.

First off the too cool tiger sculpture my folks got me for my Birthday. I will show more detailed pics of it in a bit (never mind my horrible hair, I just woke up since it was a work night).

My dad and sister's husband who worked on digging the ditch for the electricity earlier surprised me with a nice new wood chip covered trail. No more clay mud feet coming inside YAY! Bonus: it's cedar chips so it smells nice. Eventually I am going to get some solar tiki torches to line the path so I don't kill myself trying to use a flashlight getting back to the house at night.

Found this spectacular old architect style arm lamp on ebay. It positions really well, much better than my old defunct spring arm modern lamp, and best of all it had "color correct" lighting: it takes one fluorescent ring light, and one middle incandescent light. Fluorescent light has a blue tint to it, incandescent light has a yellow/red tint so it sort of balances out for a much truer color under the light. They used to be really popular in graphic design offices, photography studios, and architect firms in the 1950's.

See those really BIG bamboo poles on either side of the desk? Originally I was going to carve open holes in them above each joint so it would have little pocket holes to store stuff in, but was a little afraid it wouldn't work too well and that I might find black mold inside the bamboo as I had with some of the smaller stuff. So instead I drilled holes big enough to put some small bamboo pieces into to use as hangers for some of my tools.

Remember those crappy looking overhead cords? I hated those it ruined the whole look so I took a page from Wendy and Dan and used some plant vines to cover them up.

And the vine appears to crawl through the overhead cloth hangings to reach down and wind around the cord on the other side.

If you look close here you can see the large bamboo halves that flank each side of the door. That same annoying white electric cord runs along the length of the beam above the door so its hid by bamboo pieces. The cardboard tiki pole is just a placeholder until I can make some real ones. It's leftover from my college graduation fair where I had a tiki themed booth to show off my graphic design skills.

Mom caught a few pics of me and dad at work putting some last touches. This is us together trying to put bamboo over the fraying lauhala matting I put on the end beam of the overhead loft.

Me using a small handsaw to cut some bamboo. I did this a lot for the hut, and a few times the blade slipped and cut me pretty good, or I got bamboo splinters in my fingers (or one memorable time, splinters UNDER my fingernails... ouch.) Behind me you can see part of the tiki fabric wall divider between my half of the shed and dads. I still have a ton of that cloth left maybe make a shirt or something later.

There will be more pics to follow, but for now here is a sampling from the party...

Since I did some training in cooking/baking at Job Corps when I was younger, I have made dozens of cakes for friends and family over the years. My sister decided for once that she would try to make me a decorated cake this time. She made this very cute pair of sandal cakes and completely stressed over them not turning out right (she made the rookie mistake of not creaming the butter at the right time in the butter cream frosting), but I think they turned quite good myself. Bonus points on the extra theming of brown sugar for sand and the edible candy decorations. The cake was (gluten free) lemon pound, my favorite.

We had several food dishes, but the main thing was barbecue with delicious shishkabobs taking the starring role. I found out those bamboo skewers are actually pretty damned sharp when one slipped and went under my skin with the point breaking off where I had to use tweezers to get it out. The pains a cook must go through.

Me in the middle with the tiger Aloha shirt, alongside some of my good friends and some of the food spread.

My pop the grillmeister.

Most of my main friends that were at the party (some couldn't come at the last minute, and some are camera shy) gathered together in the new studio.

One of my Birthday presents was this garden sign for outside the studio. My friends know I am a Disney nut and have a "grumpy" disposition at times...

Another birthday present from my sister, another cool cat for the studio.

Looks like everyone had a great time The tigers fighting in the water sculpture is very cool indeed!
_________________May we all get to have a chance to ride the fast one
Walk away wiser when we crashed one
Keep hoping that the best one is the last one

It's a bit late, but I did tell my sister what you said Littlegiles and she appreciated it.

I have been doing quite a lot of non-tiki art in the new studio, but last night I started my piece for the cannibal art trade which is a shrunken head carved into bamboo. I had a few larger size pieces of bamboo left from the build and thought it would be cool to use them somehow for the art trade. I also had a dremel tool I originally purchased to carve tapa designs into some wood details of the tiger hut, but never found the time and the brand new dremel was pushed aside. I have used a dremel before for other projects when I was younger (cutting eggs in half to make Fabrige style jewel boxes among other things) but I have never really carved anything hard before. The only stuff I ever carved was super soft like soap... well I DID try to carve a wood stick with a jack knife once, but gave up on it. So needless to say this was pretty new territory for me. I was really concerned that bamboo might get crazy splintery on me, but it really didn't do too bad in the department.

First I drew a sketch of a shrunken head after doing a lot of research (and I never want to see photos of cannibals again thanks so much for that nightmare fuel, Google).

Then I started carving with two different bit heads I had. I really needed another one for smaller finer details, but had to make do.

I tried to carve as deep as I dared without going through the bamboo wall. This made a hell of a lot of bamboo sawdust which is super fine I really should have been wearing a mask but I expected larger bits like wood has.

Then the plan was to woodburn the fine details, but I could only find my crappy hobby burner I've had since I was a kid. A good wood burner should allow you to do softer shadowing with the tip so the burning can have varying degrees of a light burn or a dark one. As you can see here it was pretty much all dark like overly burnt toast.

This was not turning out how I envisioned and was getting less confident by the minute with the carving and burning. So I thought it would help bring out the details if I gave it a light wash of acrylic paint. I really should have stopped at the wood burning stage. Part of being a good artist is knowing when to pull back, or stop and sometimes I just don't know when to do that. Forgive the photo it also shows some non-tiki trading card size art I am working on based on old arcade games, but I thought it would be kind of neat to show my reference sheet and my cookie sheet I used to mix my paints.

It's probably time to clean that cookie sheet and start over with my paints. I hope this project turns out better by the time it's done. Right now the results are disappointing. I guess we will see later if the fat bamboo sings.

Where to start, the party photos were a feast for the eyes. The cake was wonderful. Your studio looks great with so many things to look at. I love the artists palate it looks better than most modern art pieces. Your shrunken head is coming along great it looks primitive like the subject. What fun it is to visit here. Happy Belated Birthday tigertail777, Wendy
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